Flashback VI
2005.03.14 2:07

#How to use depends on their representatives
Some people still believe that because they are the taxpayers they have a right to decide how to use their tax. Some question arose after the American government decided to supplement the huge loss S&L made many years ago that it was really true whether the taxpayers really have those right. In Japan too, thousands of taxpayer's money have been poured into the huge loss of private bankings and companies that were already collapsed.
The answer for these question is unfortunately 'No, they haven't.' Taxpayers have no right to decide how to use their tax. But they have the right to choose their representatives on their own. To vote is their only right for this.
In order to stabilise the society, not just for war not just for welfare, sometimes tax ought to be spent to compensate for a private company that was about to bankrupt even if we knew it cause moral hazard among ordinary people, for banks that hold quite large amount of non-performing loans that were lent to so-called socially unacceptable companies.
In this sense, government are subject to being the handy apparatus to nurture the evil of the society. The problem is we have no effective way to challenge the decisions our government made. Locke used to write about our right to resist for this, but this right is ambiguous and not established.
Our priority ought to be for people not in the least just for social evils. But reality prevents us from acting as if we were a batman.